I thank God for you

Continuing in my study of Deuteronomy 31:

Verses 7-8:
Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

First I want to share some commentary from David Guzick:

“Bringing the people into the Promised Land was God’s work. He was going to do it. But God almost always does His work through men and women who make themselves available to Him.

i. Sometimes people wrongly say, “It is all the LORD, it’s all the LORD.” True, God does His work, but He does it through people.

Since God was going to use Joshua, he must be strong and of good courage. But Moses knew Joshua and knew that he would. So he confidently said, you shall cause them to inherit it.

i. Men of encouragement like Moses are a blessing. Moses knew that Joshua might be wavering, so he encouraged him, and pushed him forward to be more than he perhaps thought he could be. God uses encouraging people to help us fulfill the destiny He has for us.

ii. Joshua was the man; but the work was the LORD’s”

My thoughts:

We had this discussion in a Bible study I attended not long ago. When we do some work for the Lord and people say “Thank you” or they speak words of encouragement over us we feel compelled to tell them to thank the Lord instead or remind them that it is all glory to God. While this is very true and we should always remember that it is the Lord’s work and He is the one that calls us and enables us to do it, we also need to be able to accept gratitude and encouragement with a grateful heart. Accepting a thank you or encouragement is not prideful when we realize God has sent that to us through someone else just as He sent us to do His work to others. It all goes together. Where we get into trouble is when we start doing work while expecting a thank you or gratitude or encouragement. We don’t work for the gratitude but for the Lord, who will, in His loving kindess, mercy, and grace, send us gratitude because He loves us. He can also remove it when we start doing His work with the wrong heart. He is a good Shepherd, after all, and will not let us stray far if we always recognize His correction. And we will when we seek the kingdom first.

So, just to make things easier when I want to thank or encourage someone the Spirit as led me to Philippians 1:3:

“I thank my God every time I remember you.”

For all of you out there doing God’s work; I thank God for you. I thank you for being so obedient and bringing His love to the world. Thank you for making yourself available to Him and answering His call with “Here am I, Lord, send me.” It is not an easy task but the most worthwhile task. Be strong and of good courage for the Lord goes before you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Fear not and do not be discouraged. God loves you and so do I. ❤️

Is gluttony really a sin?

As we draw closer to the New Year and we all start making our “New Year, new you” resolutions, I want to share what God has been working out in me.

Many of our resolutions will be to lose weight. That is usually coming after a huge holiday binge fest, right? Eat all we want now because we are going to deny ourselves later. That right there is a sign of the wrong motivation. Anytime we say that we are going to change the way we eat but we are going to start on Monday and binge out til then, we are setting ourselves up for failure because we have the wrong motivation.

Maybe our motivation is a vanity reason. We want to look better. Want to be able to wear our clothes better. Want to be a smaller size. Want people to notice the weight we have lost. This is like chasing the wind. We can certainly do things that make us “look better” but if we don’t like how we look now I can tell you from experience you won’t like what you look like when you lose weight either. There will still be more weight to lose, more muscle to tone, and then having to work so hard to keep a certain “look” that you find approving. These bodies will grow older and never look the same anyway. These bodies are temporary, and we are not to strive for what is temporary, right?

2 Corinthians 4:18
“while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Maybe our motivation is to be healthy. We want to have good health to carry us into our elder years. That seems like a good goal! And it isn’t all bad. We should want to take good care of our bodies because they are the temple of the Holy Spirit. But even our health is fleeting. This still isn’t enough to keep us on track.

So, what then? What is it that can keep us on track? First thing is knowing the truth about overeating.

Proverbs 23:19-21
19 Listen, my son, and be wise,
and set your heart on the right path:
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine
or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

It is obvious that getting drunk is a sin. Well, seems obvious to most anyway and for obvious reasons. I dare say, not a single good decision was made while drunk. But did you know that gluttony ranked right up there with drunkards in the Bible? In church, we wouldn’t laugh at someone getting drunk at an event. No, we would intervene and try to help that person. But we laugh about over indulging in food, don’t we? This sin may be overlooked by most churches but it certainly isn’t overlooked by God.

The good news is, it wasn’t overlooked by Jesus either. He died for that sin. His blood washes it away. He sent the Spirit to abide in us to give us strength to repent that sin and have a heart change over it. That is some pretty strong motivation there, isn’t it?

I had a particularly rough day yesterday. It was really more than one thing but one particular thing was rather tough. I wanted to eat my feelings away and the enemy was saying to me “is it even really a sin anyway?” So, I went to God with that question and guess what book and chapter came to me in my email this morning? Proverbs 23. Those verses I posted earlier are what I read this morning and it is by no coincidence. That was God making it perfectly clear that yes, this is sin.

That is good news, too! Jesus has defeated sin, and since Jesus is a friend of ours and our Savior from sin then we can start walking today in victory over it.

Not on Monday. Not on January 1st. But we can choose today who we will serve; our fleshly desire for overindulgence and the idol of food or Jesus. As for me and my body, we will serve the Lord! (Joshua 24:15)

I can’t do that!

“Don’t you think it’s interesting that the greatest sermon Jesus ever preached there’s no mention of the cross? Jesus had the purpose in mind on the Sermon on the Mount to prepare men and women to receive what he would do on the cross and to prepare them by ruining their confidence in their own good works.

We are supposed to come to verse 48, to that statement, ‘you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect’ and say “I can’t do that!’

So, what do we do? We look to the cross… Jesus says I did [lived perfectly] and if you put your trust in me I will give you the gift of my righteousness in your life. My righteousness will be yours.

We are supposed to regard it like this; ‘I thought I was a pretty good person until I heard Jesus really explain the law of God in the Sermon on the Mount. Now I know I really need a Savior.’ ” -David Guzick

Chasing the wind

Some thoughts I wanted to share after a quick Bible study on my lunch break. I hope it lightens your heart and puts a skip in your step as it did mine. ❤

Stop striving for what we think we need to be happy. The perfect husband, the perfect kids, the perfect body, the perfect house, the perfect finances, being the perfect Christian…all these pride of life things are under the sun! They never satisfy because they are never perfect. Just a chasing of the wind. Let it go and be free! Just enjoy the presence of a good, good Father!

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things (what we need and what will bring true joy) will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33

Let go of striving for happiness! Just enjoy our Father! Our Abba! Just enjoy GOD!! Only God can satisfy us! So be satisfied with Him! Be satisfied in Him!

Just go

To all the young families:

Go to church. Get an actual relationship with God. Not just that “oh, sure, I believe in God. I know Jesus.” type of relationship. But the type that He is all you think about and your whole life is centered around Him. And don’t think you are doing your kids any favors by “letting them choose for themselves”. I am here to tell you that you are not. They will choose the ways of the world everytime and follow your regret-filled footsteps and worse. Don’t you want more than that for them? Listen for God calling to you and go!

Let me tell you why:

If you don’t then you are going to have a past you deeply regret. Yes, once you truly come to Christ you are forgiven. But that doesn’t change what kind of parent you was while you strayed so far from God. It doesn’t change how you raised your kids while being so self centered because you didn’t come to God so He could pull you out of yourself and teach you to love others more than you love yourself. It doesn’t change the choices you made while you didn’t have your aim set on Jesus, the perfector of our faith.

You do not want these regrets. It is one thing to hurt yourself. It is totally another thing to look back and see the damage you did to your kids and others in your life. It is those things that your flesh will wake you up at night thinking about. It is what leaves you in tears as you see your adult kids struggling and you now know the cure but they won’t take it.

Yes, God redeems. Yes, He restores. And I am so thankful for that! Knowing that is what gets me through those painful thoughts and regrets. It is what brings joy and peace back to my heart.

Young families, you don’t want this struggle. No parent is perfect even if you have a God filled home, but the regrets hit a little different when you didn’t. I don’t know who this is for but go. Don’t wait for daddy to go
Momma, you take those kids. Daddy, don’t wait for momma to go. You take them. Just go. Grow. Take it all in and mature in your faith. Give your kids a strong foundation. Find that church that feels like home and truly loves you and your kids. Those churches are out there, I promise you. Seek until you find it. And then serve. Serve in that church and feel your heart fill with joy. Not because it is good work. Although it is. Not because you are being obedient. Although you are. But because it fills you with joy, peace, and love to serve a church that serves you! It keeps you from being self centered and opens you up to learning how to love others better. Especially your kids.

Don’t you hear Him calling? Just go.

I may regret a huge portion of my past but I never have regretted studying my bible, being in church, or serving. Just. Go.

Proverbs 29:15
The rod (the Bible) and reproof (Godly instruction to correct behavior or to rebuke) give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame (regret) to his mother.

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Why?

Testimony time:

I lived so much of my life depressed. Depressed is only the surface word. Under it you would find despair, stress, anxiety, anger, and defeat. I tried covering that depression with all kinds of lusts of the flesh. I won’t go into detail because there are some readers that may not be at the maturity level to handle hearing the roads I have taken, but for some of you that knew me then, you already know. Those lusts of the flesh appealed to me because it was instant gratification. I didn’t have to face the pain for those brief moments. Those moments in the flesh promised me peace and good times and “great memories” to replace the bad ones. But that flesh lied to me. It created choas, more pain, and more bad memories. I also drew other people in to these fleshly ways and they also share these same bad memories. I hurt myself, my kids, my marriage, and my whole family. None of this helped my depression in any way. Such lies I believed!

Jesus called me out of all of that. People talk about finding joy the moment they were saved. Can I be honest? I didn’t feel the joy of my salvation right away. I knew God was the answer but I still felt depressed and defeated. I would sit back and constantly ask “why, Lord? Why me? Why my family? Why did I do that? Why didn’t you stop me?” God didn’t condemn me for those questions, He just kept guiding me. One step in front of the other was all I could do for a long while. Just stay the course, Monica. One step at a time. I KNEW God was the answer. I had no where else to go.

Me and God have been a team for a few years now and I am here to tell you this: I have learned crying out “why?” to God doesn’t get the problem solved. When Peter stepped out of the boat to walk on water with Jesus he started to sink when he looked at the storm instead of focusing on the power of Jesus. (Matthew 14:22-33) Peter could have cried out “why?!” as he was sinking, but what would the answer to that “why” do? How would that answer save him from drowning? Instead, he cried out; “Lord, save me!”

That has been my biggest lesson as I have learned to trust God with my life. It has been the cure to my depression and all that goes with it. Crying out “why?” does not bring the solution. I trust the One that carries that answer and I trust He will reveal it to me should it ever be something that I need to know. That question of “why” does nothing for me when I feel like I am sinking. The only thing that saves me from drowning is when I cry out; “Lord, save me!”

And He does. Every single time.

I do feel the joy of my salvation now that the depression has been defeated. I feel it so much at times it is hard to contain, and maybe I shouldn’t contain it. So, if you ever hear me yelp out in excitement or jump in the air in celebration, just know that I am remembering where I was and where I am not anymore and where I am going when it is all said and done. I am remembering just how much I can trust God in this life and I have no reason to fear or have anxiety or be in despair! I am remembering just how long and wide and high and deep God’s love for me is. (Ephesians 3:18) And not just for me but for all of us, including the ones I have hurt.

All thanks to God who sent Himself in the flesh as Jesus to live amongst us and go through this troubled life with us. Then to have every bit of evil this world contains thrown on Him on His way to the cross where He took on the wages of sin for us so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him unhindered by that sin. He gave us a way of escape! (1 Corinthians 10:13, Psalm 68:20)

I will never be defeated again! Yes! I have joy!! An everlasting joy!

Psalm 61:2
“From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

Psalm 107:19
“Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.”

Isaiah 51:11
“Those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Business as usual or unusual business?

Matthew 24:37-39
“As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be.”

At the time of the flood everyone was caught living their life business as usual. Everyone, except Noah and his family that is.

Noah and his family were caught being about the Father’s business. They were living life yet their business was not usual at all. Sure, they had usual business in their lives but that isn’t what they were all about. Their main focus was on God and His business. God led and guided them in their usual business as they fulfilled His.

Those who lived their life only focused on worldly business as usual ended up falling away into great evil and no righteousness of God could be found in their hearts. Their focus were in the ways of the world and the world became their ruler. This is the danger of living a life business as usual with your focus on a corrupt, fallen world that will soon pass away. Taking your life out of the usual to live a life doing God’s extraordinary, out of the usual work leads to great blessings now and in the end.

Will you be caught being about the Father’s unusual business and following Christ or caught only doing the usual business of the world?

Matthew 24:36, 40-41, 46
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.

Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing His business when He comes.”

Maybe you are someone that has never decided to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Maybe you are someone who did, at one time, say a prayer for salvation but now realizes you never really started living your life for God and never really started following Christ making Him Lord of your life. Let me tell you some good news. That is a decision you can make right now at this very moment.

Christ willingly left His rightful seat in heaven to come die on a cross so, even while we are still sinners, we could be saved from the wages of sin. (Romans 5:8) When Christ died on that cross He opened up a fountain of living water that washes us clean and redeems us until the very end. (Zechariah 13:1) He was buried in a tomb and rose 3 days later with only the scars of His sacrifice remaining. Scars left behind not to remind us of what our sins have done but to shows us how they are healed. He ascended back to the Father so He could send the Holy Spirit to teach us and remind us of His word. (John 14:26) As we abide in His word He remains abiding in us and changing our hearts and granting God’s will in our lives. (John 15:7) Then, as we stay in His word, we become His disciples and joyfully, passionately live to tell the world about Him! (John 8:31, Mark 16:15)

This is our good news! This is what keeps us about our Father’s business! If you are willing to admit your need for a Savior from your sins, believe and have faith that Christ died for those sins, and confess Him Lord of your life with a desire to turn away from your sins and follow Him then all I can say is… “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:50

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”
Ephesians 2:8

Complaining vs. Prayer

Complaining brings sin. Prayer brings grace and change.

I don’t need someone to stand in agreement with me that someone did me wrong. I need people to stand in prayer with me over the person that did me wrong.

I don’t need people to stand in agreement with me over political views and decisions. I need people to stand in prayer with me over the leaders of this country.

I don’t need people to stand in agreement with me that life may be knocking me some blows. I need people to stand in prayer with me for endurance and hope.

This is the difference in complaining and taking it to God. Complaining just dumps your worry, stress, anger and bad attitude on others and makes them worry, stress, be angry and have a bad attitude. Asking for prayer says “Let’s take this worry, stress, anger and bad attitude to the One that can fix it and bring us hope and contentment in the midst of it.”

Complaining about someone says “I want you to not like this person, too. Be angry with me!” Praying for someone says “I want us to show love to this person and let go of the anger.”

Complaining brings sin. Prayer brings grace and change.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” Matthew 5:43-47

“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 19:11

“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;” Hebrews 12:15

“Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:23-26

Who is your master?

I have made a post a while back about my cat and dog having the same master but hear me out again.

What makes my cat and dog get along? According to the world they shouldn’t. Cartoons have shown us ever since we were kids that cats and dogs are enemies. In fact, my dog doesn’t like any other cat in this world except our Jackson. Why?

Because they have the same master. They are loved, cared for, and provided for by the same master. Having the same master makes them family and that makes a difference. They don’t hate each other because they are drawn to the same one that shows them love.

Now, lets take this past my home and out into the world. What is truly the answer for us to be equal? For us to see each other as family? What would draw us together in love? Yep, you guessed it! Having the same master!

“Well, I don’t want to be mastered!” you might say. Ok, but you are mastered by something already. I don’t know who or what it is for you, but you have made a choice to let something master you. Something or someone is guiding you in life. This thing or person may change through the years and maybe even day to day, but there is still something mastering you.

Now, let me tell you about my Master. He was willing to leave His righteous seat in heaven, leaving all His royalty behind, to come live among us as God in the flesh. He was birthed from a virgin girl (doing the impossible before He even took His first breath in this earth as human) and was raised a poor carpenter’s son (even though His true Father is the great I Am). He walked this earth as an everyday boy quietly growing and maturing and waiting so patiently to be about His Father’s business.

Then, when the time finally came, His ministry came alive! This was wonderful for us! He was preaching about the truth of the bible, correcting the law, and performing miracle after miracle! What this also did was start the ball rolling on His true purpose here. His whole life had been lived sinless. Not one speck of sin stained Him because, although He was fully man, He was also fully God. He came as God in the flesh, remember? That is why He was able to resist all temptation to the fullest and live a sinless life. He felt it all. In the flesh He felt every bit of our suffering and was about to feel it in the most horrific way.

You see, long ago sin entered this world through Adam and Jesus was going to remove that stain forever for all who believes. This removal takes a blood sacrifice. A perfect one. Something the whitest and healthiest of lambs couldn’t cover. It was going to take the Lamb of God. God sent Himself to do the work. Jesus is God in the flesh, remember? He was beaten to near death before He was forced to carry His cross to Calvary. The evil of this world lashing out at Him in full force. An innocent man being treated as the scum of the earth. He hung on that cross fighting for every breath just to say “forgive them Father, they know not what they do.”

Darkness fell. The whole despair of the world encompassed Him in darkeness and as He took our sin on Himself, sin He had not ever committed Himself, God the Father had to turn His face from Him. God hates sin. His goodness is so great that sin cannot be in His presence. The wages of sin have to be paid in order for God to even be in our presence. The wages of sin is death. Jesus died on that cross to fulfill those wages forever for anyone who believes and accepts Him as master of their life.

What does Him being Master of your life look like? It is full of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. It is Him interceding for us that brings us into a close relationship with God and His goodness for now and all eternity. I can now never be plucked from the Father’s hand. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:28

Because He rose again (defeating death and embracing eternal life) and acended back to heaven in His rightful seat by the Father, He was able to send the Holy Spirit to be our helper. This Helper abides in us and changes our hearts as we walk with Him. When we walk with the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Our whole life begins to change! Our whole heart changes! And since Jesus defeated death and embraced eternal life in heaven then I will, too.

This is my Master and I live to serve Him. I serve Him by loving Him with all my heart, body, and soul and I love my neighbor as myself. I love my neighbor by pointing them to Christ on the cross where all the love and healing they have been searching for can be fulfilled. Let me tell you, when the Spirit guides me to help someone in that way there is nothing more fulfilling! When I hear it in their voice or see it in their eyes it never gets old. Serving my Master fulfills me and helps others to be fulfilled. He lifts me out of sin and washes me clean daily. His grace and mercy will follow me everywhere I go for the rest of my life. He makes me content in all circumstances because He has taught me to trust Him.

Are you ready to change your master? He calls to us all. He desires us all to come to Him and be saved from this fallen world and be loved til the end! If you feel like God has never called to you but you have made it this far in my post…this is it, my friend. He is calling you right now. Let that love fill your heart and allow Him to become real to you. I pray that over you as well.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in…”
Revelation 3:20